Ten teams also enter the group stage direct from the UEFA Champions League: six teams eliminated in the league path (third qualifying round and play-offs) and four teams eliminated in the champions path play-offs.

Qualifying

From 2018/19 there will be two paths: the champions path and the league path. Teams enter as per the access list drawn up from the UEFA association coefficients at the end of 2016/17.

Champions route (eight group places)

This route consists of teams eliminated in the UEFA Champions League champions path between the preliminary round and the third qualifying round. There are three teams in all:

Second qualifying round: 20 teams eliminated in UEFA Champions League preliminary round and first qualifying round

As said above it'll make little difference unless we go a round further than we've managed recently.

The introduction of a preliminary round means we could be faced with a TeamA or TeamB v Aberdeen situation even in the 1st round. A ball ache for folk wanting to travel but the same situation we've had for the 2nd/3rd rounds in recent years.

Could this be viewed as a good thing for AFC? As we would now only get three drop-downs from the CL qualifiers - because we're in the 'league section'.

Of course, we would need to qualify for the ELQ first, cup winners, second and third would be good enough. Fourth in the league - AFC would need Celtic or Sevco to win the cup.

Some pros and cons but generally speaking I would say this is worse for us

Now only 13 places available in Group stages to us compared with 22 this season

First round marginally harder as 8 of the diddiest teams knocked out in preliminary round so slightly greater chance of getting a tougher draw

Round 2 also slightly tougher as 1 team from top 9 countries, plus countries 13-15 now join in Round 2 compared with Round 3 this year so potential of tougher draw and lower likelihood of being seeded in second round

Round 3 also slightly tougher as this is where the 3 CL drop outs come in whereas the 15 CL drop outs all joined in prelim round last year. Note the 3 teams will be runners up from the six leagues ranked 10-15 so won't be mega hard teams

Prelim round easier than this year as just a straight forward knockout of teams qualifying from R3 ie no further CL drop outs but note again only 13 places at this stage versus 22 this year.

The one really positive point is dates. All dates are later so players won't get the mega short holidays. First round is 12/19 July and R2 is July 26/August 2. Note that we started in R2 this year on 13 July. Not sure if it is later due to World Cup so a one off or will be permanently later to fit in the new Prelim round.

The draw for every round is before the prior round is finished (including the play off round) so lots of possibilities for either/or draws so as Donnet said booking travel etc will be a pain constantly going forward.

So in summary the rounds that we are most likely going to play in just got a little bit harder with a bit more of a chance of a tougher draw but if we could somehow make it through to the qualifying round could be slightly easier.

Dates are a definite positive although one quirk is that the cup winners/league runners up that goes into R2 will only have played 2 competitive games before league starts compared with 4 for everyone else (either Europe or league cup games) so if that's us (and I still live in hope) better make sure we are good to go for start of league.

However first things first, we need to finish off this season strongly to make sure we qualify and secondly we need to bring in a decent number of quality players in the Summer if we have any thoughts of a decent run in EL next season as current squad minus McLean/Christie has minimal chance of getting past R2 maybe even R1

Well that's us in it then. Had a look at the teams qualified and there are plenty of familiar teams.

Zalgiris Vilnius, Ventspils, Kairat and Siroki Brijeg are all in QR1. A Riga FC (seem to be formed from the scraps of multiple Riga teams including Skonto and Daugava) also appear. Fola Esch look set to join us. Maribor are currently sitting in a Europa League spot but could still win the league - same goes for Apollon who are also in the Cyprus cup final. Shkendija are in their cup final but they have also won their league entering them into the Champions League qualifiers.

We'll be seeded for QR1 (if we're in it) and unseeded for QR2. The "big" teams in QR2 are currently AZ Alkmaar, Legia Warsaw and Burnley but Sevilla, Leipzig and Zenit are all sitting in QR2 qualification spots in their respective leagues.

Well that's us in it then. Had a look at the teams qualified and there are plenty of familiar teams.

Zalgiris Vilnius, Ventspils, Kairat and Siroki Brijeg are all in QR1. A Riga FC (seem to be formed from the scraps of multiple Riga teams including Skonto and Daugava) also appear. Fola Esch look set to join us. Maribor are currently sitting in a Europa League spot but could still win the league - same goes for Apollon who are also in the Cyprus cup final. Shkendija are in their cup final but they have also won their league entering them into the Champions League qualifiers.

We'll be seeded for QR1 (if we're in it) and unseeded for QR2. The "big" teams in QR2 are currently AZ Alkmaar, Legia Warsaw and Burnley but Sevilla, Leipzig and Zenit are all sitting in QR2 qualification spots in their respective leagues.

So if we get straight into QR2 we're unseeded? Gotta hope we don't get any of those sides, woud like to see us try and have a good bash at Europe, playoff must be the target set by the managmenet team

Well that's us in it then. Had a look at the teams qualified and there are plenty of familiar teams.

Zalgiris Vilnius, Ventspils, Kairat and Siroki Brijeg are all in QR1. A Riga FC (seem to be formed from the scraps of multiple Riga teams including Skonto and Daugava) also appear. Fola Esch look set to join us. Maribor are currently sitting in a Europa League spot but could still win the league - same goes for Apollon who are also in the Cyprus cup final. Shkendija are in their cup final but they have also won their league entering them into the Champions League qualifiers.

We'll be seeded for QR1 (if we're in it) and unseeded for QR2. The "big" teams in QR2 are currently AZ Alkmaar, Legia Warsaw and Burnley but Sevilla, Leipzig and Zenit are all sitting in QR2 qualification spots in their respective leagues.

So if we get straight into QR2 we're unseeded? Gotta hope we don't get any of those sides, woud like to see us try and have a good bash at Europe, playoff must be the target set by the managmenet team

Right here are a couple of positive points:

Positive No1- If we finish 3rd and go in at QR1 we'd be seeded and have a great chance of going through to play a seeded side that have yet to play a "proper" game

OR

Positive No2-if we are to finish 2nd plus tims win the cup and we enter at QR2 unseeded we'll be playing a seeded team who also have not played a "proper" game.

Positive No1- If we finish 3rd and go in at QR1 we'd be seeded and have a great chance of going through to play a seeded side that have yet to play a "proper" game OR
Positive No2-if we are to finish 2nd plus tims win the cup and we enter at QR2 unseeded we'll be playing a seeded team who also have not played a "proper" game.

we have our "old system" points given to us which leaves us quite low especially when clubs are getting their country coefficient if it is less that the club coefficient and it puts us somewhere around the 236 as a ranking

Our 3rd place gives us just 1pt per year

if we had our "new system" points given to us instead based on 4 years of 3rd round qualifying we would be around 140

The new system gives you your own coefficient to the last 5 years or your countries coefficient so there are teams with no recent games who are doing well out of it

We are 236 with 4 seasons of 3rd round qualifying

FC Olympik Donetsk has a single year of 3rd place qualifying yet is 143

Go ahead eagle has one year of 1st round qualifying and is 180th

Famagusta has 1 2nd round qualification and is 216th

If this was done on club co-efficents only we would be somewhere around 160

its going to take a few years to iron out of the system

Both Rangers (265 club coeffienct 0.25) and hibs(267 1.0)/motherwell 270 1.5) gain substantially as they are taking the Scotland coefficient not there own I assume rangers with the lowest club coefficient take the higher places due to them getting their points most recently

Basically what I'm saying is the co-efficents and hence seeding is completely screwed by using a new ranking system with the old scores so I think we are going to see some games were the seed teams are really quite poor

we have our "old system" points given to us which leaves us quite low especially when clubs are getting their country coefficient if it is less that the club coefficient and it puts us somewhere around the 236 as a ranking

Our 3rd place gives us just 1pt per year

if we had our "new system" points given to us instead based on 4 years of 3rd round qualifying we would be around 140

The new system gives you your own coefficient to the last 5 years or your countries coefficient so there are teams with no recent games who are doing well out of it

We are 236 with 4 seasons of 3rd round qualifying

FC Olympik Donetsk has a single year of 3rd place qualifying yet is 143

Go ahead eagle has one year of 1st round qualifying and is 180th

Famagusta has 1 2nd round qualification and is 216th

If this was done on club co-efficents only we would be somewhere around 160

its going to take a few years to iron out of the system

Both Rangers (265 club coeffienct 0.25) and hibs(267 1.0)/motherwell 270 1.5) gain substantially as they are taking the Scotland coefficient not there own I assume rangers with the lowest club coefficient take the higher places due to them getting their points most recently

Basically what I'm saying is the co-efficents and hence seeding is completely screwed by using a new ranking system with the old scores so I think we are going to see some games were the seed teams are really quite poor

Good post.

Europe is a waste of time for teams like us, other that the jollies obviously.

Europe is a waste of time for teams like us, other that the jollies obviously.

Bollocks. Getting into the group stages of the Europa would be massive for us financially. It'll take a bit of luck with the draws but it's doable. Once you get in once it gets easier each year (in theory).

Its a waste of time as in we're not going to win it but that's not what football is all about imo.

European games are great!
Good crowds v a different club in decent weather at Pittodrie and the away trips are brilliant fun.

Scottish fitba in general is a dour, bleak environment.... Europe is wee ray of sunshine.

so like I said, the jollies

Bollocks. Getting into the group stages of the Europa would be massive for us financially. It'll take a bit of luck with the draws but it's doable. Once you get in once it gets easier each year (in theory).

We will never make it to the groups, not on our budget & not with our current manager.

Aye but we've played pretty much every league team in the past 15-20 years through the league, cups or friendlies, particularly given it's regionalised as well and we would be unlikely to face teams like Annan, Edinburgh City or Spartans. Europe throws up some teams we'll face for one tie and almost never again.

If we get a by into QR2 I hope to fuck DMc gets them in earlier and plays some more meaningful friendlies. By his own admission we were under prepared last season. These are the most important games of the season financially.